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You would be FAR better off waiting until after you turn 66 to start benefits at your full retirement age. After reaching full retirement age, you can receive benefits and earn as much as you want with no reduction to your benefits..Under growing pressure to reduce the federal deficit, the prospect of major Social Security and Medicare cuts is the greatest it's been in almost three decades. The recent debt limit deal calls for a bipartisan committee that has until Thanksgiving to come up with a plan to cut the deficit by .2 trillion. TSCL believes that the committee would very likely include a change to a more slowly growing consumer price index that would cut annual-cost-of-living adjustments. There are also proposals that would require seniors to pay a bigger portion of their Medicare costs..Can You Explain the Pros and Cons of Switching to a Medicare Advantage Plan?.The Pelosi bill if enacted would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies in order to lower them..Several controversial policy riders are currently acting as hurdles in the discussions. Many are pushing to revive expired tax breaks for businesses, while some are hoping to put an end to restrictions that ban the exportation of crude oil. Other potential riders include changes to the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, new research on gun violence, and an extension of health benefits for 9/11 first responders..For the past several years, Social Security's Disability Insurance program has been facing financing challenges. In the fall of 2015, lawmakers took action to prevent a 19% benefit cut that would have affected 10 million disabled enrollees and dependents, extending the program's solvency past 201However, more work remains before the program can be considered financially stable. In September, lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee took the first steps toward improving the program's solvency when they held a hearing to discuss its future..On Wednesday, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports on the financial outlook of both programs. As expected, they found that Social Security and Medicare are experiencing long-term financing shortfalls. Social Security's combined trust funds are expected to be depleted in 2034, which remains unchanged from last year's report. Medicare's Hospital Insurance trust fund is expected to be depleted in 2028 two years earlier than the trustees projected last year..The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security of 2020, however, suspended the automatic Medicare cuts from taking effect between May 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. "But the legislation extended cuts for an additional year beyond the current expiration date," Johnson notes. "That will mean that Medicare and Medicaid will continue to be subject to automatic cuts until 2030, 10 more years.".Some say that if workers pay into the system, then they should be entitled to benefits. But TSCL and the overwhelming majority of seniors who have responded to TSCL's surveys believe that Social Security benefits should not be based on illegal earnings and work credits. Congress is considering big changes to both Social Security and Medicare that will result in reducing benefits and higher costs for retirees in the future. TSCL supports measures that would prohibit Social Security from using earnings for jobs worked without legal authorization to be counted towards entitlement to benefits.